156 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



as the requirements of the tree, our aim is to supply the deficiency, if any, as 

 recorded by tlie rain-gaufije. To illustrate: Suppose that up to a certain 

 date we have moro than the required two inches per mouth rainfall; 

 or to be more accurate, one-half inch per week. It should be remembered 

 that the rainfall must be well distributed, at intervals, to be effective. 

 Now come two weeks with no rain. We give the tree two barrels 

 of water, more or less, in proportion to its size, equal to one-half 

 inch of rainfall. If another week passes with no rain and no prospect of 

 any, we must repeat the application. It is expensive but I think no man 

 ever lost a dollar in this way, provided he did the work thoroughly. Another 

 consideration: Work is at a stand still, except with those who believe in the 

 theory of constant cultivation, during a drouth. We have lost faith in 

 that theory here. In lookiug over the reports for a series of ten years, I 

 find but one month during the summer season when the rainfall was less 

 than one inch. It will usually be found that a barrel or two of water, 

 applied just at the critical period, will insure a full crop of fine specimens, 

 while if we wait a few days, hoping for rain, and it does not come, the crop 

 is ruined as far as size and quality go. 



In Michigan we are obliged to use mechanical means for irrigation. Water 

 must be drawn in barrels or tanks from adjoining lakes and streams, or a 

 windmill and reservoir can be built upon the highest ground in the orchard. 

 In using well water for irrigation, care must be taken that the temperature is 

 not below that of the surface soil. If cold water is used direct from the 

 pump, more harm than good will result, especially with young trees. The 

 cost of irrigating fruit trees with windmill and tank would be expensive except 

 in very favorable locatioiis;but it might be used for strawberries or garden truck 

 and made profitable. Water hauled in barrels a distance of one-half mile will 

 cost from ten to fifteen cents per barrel of fifty gallons. In case of peaches, 

 a barrel of water applied when the tree really needs it, that is, about ten days 

 or two weeks before the fruit ripens, will pay from one to five times the cost 

 of application. If the tree should be large and the ground extremely dry, 

 several barrels might be applied with proportionately profitable results. I 

 think it is safe to say that peaches and plums will stand any ordinary drouth 

 if given plenty of water about two weeks before they ripen. In proof of this 

 theory, Smock and Sal way peaches withstood the long summer's drouth, and 

 copious rains,coming just before they ripened,produced a crop fully equal to the 

 average. Pears and apples need a reasonable supply of moisture all through 

 the season. A few experiments may be instructive. Two Flemish Beauty 

 pear trees standing side by side, called in the plainest language for_ moisture. 

 About one-half of the foliage was gone and the half -grown pear^ were begin- 

 ning to drop. A barrel of water was rolled to one tree and allowed to run 

 out slowly. Twenty-four hours later the difference in foliage was noticeable. 

 Tiie watered tree stopped dropping its foliage and fruit, while the tree not 

 watered continued to drop both. This tree then received a barrel of water 

 with the same results, but the twenty-four hours' difference in time of appli- 

 cation was never made up. The first tree watered had the largest pears and 

 the most foliage. A Damson plum tree began to drop its fruit on account of 

 drouth. A hole was dug about four feet from the trunk, large enough to 

 hold a barrel of water. No fruit dropped after the tipplicatiou, but as the 

 drouth continued we repeated it a week later. After this showers came to 

 our relief and we harvested a fine crop of plums. At the first picking of llale's 



